Mar. 27, 2020—As COVID-19 continues to push unprecedented challenges on medical communities, one of the most pressing threats for hospital staff across the country is a dwindling supply of ventilators. Now, an interdisciplinary team of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty is taking on the challenge by way of a fabricated, open-source ventilator design.

Jul. 18, 2019—Vanderbilt collaborators focused on minimally invasive prostate surgery are developing an endoscopic robotic system with two-handed dexterity at a much smaller scale than existing options.

Jul. 18, 2019—Vanderbilt collaborators focused on minimally invasive prostate surgery are developing an endoscopic robotic system with two-handed dexterity at a much smaller scale than existing options. A key part of the design – telescoping, curved, concentric tubes – received U.S. patent protection in March 2019, the same month the principal investigators secured a $2.1 million R01...

Oct. 26, 2017—Collaboration between a mechanical engineer at Vanderbilt University and a pulmonologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has resulted in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grant that will be used to develop a steerable robotic needle to safely biopsy hard-to-reach lung nodules.

Oct. 12, 2017—Removing part of a kidney with minimally invasive robotic surgery rather than an entire kidney when operating for smaller tumors is often best for patients from a recovery and health standpoint, but many surgeons hesitate to do so because of the complexity of the robotic partial nephrectomy procedure.

Jun. 20, 2017—Vanderbilt engineers have designed a “granular jamming cap” filled with coffee grounds that can improve the accuracy of the sophisticated “GPS” system that surgeons use for nose and throat surgery.

Jul. 23, 2015—VIDEO» A Vanderbilt research team has successfully created a mechanical wrist less than 1/16th of an inch thick -- small enough to use in needlescopic surgery, the smallest form of minimally invasive surgery.

Dec. 23, 2014—For those most severely affected, epilepsy treatment means drilling through the skull deep into the brain to destroy the small area where seizures originate—invasive, dangerous, and requiring a long recovery period. Five years ago a team of Vanderbilt engineers wondered: Is it possible to address epileptic seizures in a less invasive way?